


To Have Loved and Lost

by closemyeyesandleap



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season 5 Daisy - Freeform, Pre-Season 1 Skye - Freeform, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 20:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16248911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closemyeyesandleap/pseuds/closemyeyesandleap
Summary: While cleaning the lower levels of the Lighthouse, Daisy finds herself transported to Los Angeles... in 2013.Meanwhile, an ecstatic Skye thinks she's finally found her family.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Figured I'd join in on the time travel trend.
> 
> TW for brief mention of child abuse in chapter 2.  
> Teen rating for language.

From the storage level, Daisy hardly felt any vibrations from the upper floors. Even with the lingering effects of the serum, her powers only picked up the faintest of rumblings from the people and whirring machinery above.

She was grateful for the stillness as she took inventory. Her days had fallen into an uneasy rhythm in the two weeks after the team had returned from recovering Fitz in space. She would wake up early, before anyone else. She would creep down to the gym and train alone, even as she heard May’s voice echoing in the back of her head that she needed a spotter. 

Daisy would push May from her mind, but more often than not she would move from the barbells to the punching bags, slamming her fists into them and wishing she could be sparring with May.

She needed her S.O., her sparring partner, her rock—the only one who could truly understand what she was feeling.

May was still gone. Her occasional texts reported Coulson’s decline—slower than Jemma had predicted, but steady. Unstoppable.

Daisy dreaded the text she knew was soon to come.

After her workouts, Daisy always tried to reach the kitchen before anyone else, but that effort was hit or miss. 

Half the mornings she sat in uncomfortable silence with whichever team member happened to be in the kitchen, trying to avoid their pained glances of sympathy. 

When she was truly unlucky, she would have to dodge Deke’s eager requests to go out with him to see his newest modern marvel as she tried to grab a slice of toast and a boiled egg. Daisy found herself wishing that Deke had prolonged his foray into the outside world. Instead, he had returned back to the Lighthouse as soon as he received news that his grandfather was back and actually wanted to meet him.

Mack was almost always absent. His director duties kept him busy and often away from base.

It was always a relief for Daisy to descend into the storage level and continue the inventory project that she had assigned herself. 

Noah had collected quite the assortment of human and alien oddities. Strange technology that seemed not of this world was stored besides early model VCRs and chunky phones that were the cutting edge earth tech of earlier decades. Luminous orbs lay next to boxes of ammunition. In one particularly amusing corner, Daisy found a tower of hovering, golden beads next to a cardboard box full to the brim with SPAM. 

Daisy dutifully entered each item into her computer inventory, allowing her mind to drift in the rhythmic drudgery of her work. 

She moved one large box of newly archived items back onto the shelf and brought another to the metal table in the center of the room that she was using as home base for her work. Daisy’s eyes flitted to her cellphone. It lay motionless and blank to the side of her computer. 

No texts. Not yet.

She opened the box and peered into it. Seeing nothing sharp, she reached in and picked up the furthest object to the left.

She raised it to her eyes and surveyed the object, a brick-like calculator. She tossed it into the “possibly-discard” pile.

Daisy’s eyes flitted back to the phone on the table. No texts. 

She continued her work. Her hand settled on a rough surface in the box.

All of a sudden, she saw a flash of light, then a deep darkness. 

For a moment, Daisy felt as if she had ceased to exist. Even the faint vibrations from the Lighthouse had vanished, and Daisy floated in a stillness like nothing she had felt for years.

Then, with a screech, her world turned into chaos. The sound and the feel of a busy city assaulted her senses.The rumble of traffic and the blare of horns and human conversations hummed in her bones a split second before it met her ears.

Along with the onslaught of vibrations, glaring sunlight temporarily blinded Daisy. She blinked quickly, trying to get her bearings.

A jolt of terror rushed through her. _No_ , she thought, panicked. _Not again. Not again._

She blinked a few more times and forced herself to breathe. Hot, dry air filled her lungs with each breath. Her pulse gradually slowed.

Her surroundings were decidedly early-21st century. No vicious four-legged aliens pounced. All of the passersby had skin that fell reassuringly within the range of human tones rather than blue.

Good. If she ever saw another Kree, it would be too soon.

In fact, the passing cars seemed modern, as did the clothes of the people striding by her on the sidewalk. So the artifact hadn’t transported her in time, merely in space. But to where?

Daisy surveyed her surroundings. Spindly palm trees rose in the distance and high-rise buildings towered above her. Los Angeles, then. By fortunate coincidence, Daisy even recognized the neighborhood where she had appeared. She was only a few blocks over from Ruthie’s, the diner where she used to park her van, back in the day.

OK. Los Angeles. She could work with that.

Daisy ducked her head. Now that she knew roughly where and when she had landed, she had new concerns.

She did not want a repeat of her first excursion out of the Lighthouse following her battle with Talbot. 

Piper had convinced Daisy to leave the Lighthouse for what was supposed to be a quick and simple coffee-and-donuts run. They had departed early and driven forty-five minutes to a town down the shore from River’s End.

Daisy had barely placed her order for three chocolate-glazed, creme-filled donuts and a large latte when the whispers started. “Quake? Is that Quake?” Minutes later, people crowded into the coffeeshop, trying to shove pieces of paper into Daisy’s hands and twisting around to take selfies with her in the background. The adoring fans were bad enough, but it got worse. She and Piper were wrestling their way through the enthusiastic crowd when the jeers started. 

“You belong in prison!” a red-faced man shook his fist in her face. “Get out of here; we don’t want murderers here!” another called.

Daisy hadn’t been outside since.

The people walking down the sidewalk hadn’t noticed the renowned—or infamous—Quake in their presence yet, though. She glanced over her shoulder and shuffled down the street, trying to find an empty corner to collect her thoughts. 

Daisy ducked into an alley. A gaggle of teenagers were milling around so she kept moving. She kept her gaze down, hoping the strands of dark hair fluttering in front of her face would hide her identity. The kids didn’t pay her any attention, to her relief.

She felt a strange tingle at her neck, and glanced over her shoulder. She saw a flash of movement at the edge of the alley and picked up speed.

As she rounded the corner leaving the alley, Daisy instinctively reached into her pockets for her cellphone to check her texts, then cursed. The device was still on the table at the Lighthouse, 2,000 miles away. 

Her stomach tightened. May could text her at any moment about Coulson, and she wouldn’t know.

She had to get back. She had no time for this. 

Her fingers settled on a few quarters at the bottom of her jean pockets, change left over from the donut disaster. Small mercies, Daisy figured. At least she wouldn’t have to ask anyone to borrow a phone—or steal one—to call back to the Lighthouse. Now her only challenge would be to find one of the only remaining pay phones in LA.

Maybe while she waited for the base to send someone to pick her up, she’d drop in on Gabe. She promised Robbie to look after him, after all. 

OK, it wasn’t the worst alien artifact-induced excursion, all things considered.

Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being followed. 

Daisy was nearing the diner now. If she remembered correctly, there was a pay phone nearby.

Her head still down, she reached the phone. It was just where she remembered it. In fact, the whole block looked exactly the same. She was fumbling with the coins in her pocket when, suddenly, a chipper, “hey!” made her head shoot up.

Daisy found herself eye to eye with her own smiling face.

A surge of energy left her body, spreading through the ground, as shock jolted through her.

The bright eyes before her widened. “Whoa. Crazy weird timing. LA and these earthquakes, am I right? Look, I know we don’t _technically_ know each other, but something is telling me we oughta talk.”

* * *

Skye was having a very good day. Her fingers curled over the flash drive in her hand as she left the library.

The sun beat down on her, but even in July, the cool breeze blowing in off the Pacific gave Los Angeles a pleasant feel. Her wavy hair bounced around her shoulders as she walked, with a spring in her step, down the streets leading back to her van.

Sure, she didn’t have enough money for gas and Miles hadn’t called for a week, but she was close. Skye could feel it. She was closing in on Centipede.

As she turned a corner, humming to herself, she saw a woman on the far sidewalk squinting. She looked confused, her head swerving this way and that. Skye hardly gave the woman a second thought, before doing a double-take.

Odd. Even at a distance, Skye could tell that the woman resembled her. The woman was wearing combat boots, black jeans, a gray top, and a leather jacket that looked uncomfortably warm under the grueling sun. Her hair was a little shorter than Skye’s, and darker, but her face… the resemblance was uncanny. 

Without thinking, Skye started to move toward the woman.

After over two decades of searching for her parents, Skye had a sixth sense for anyone who bore even the slightest resemblance to her. Of course, usually her targets were much older, but the end result was always the same.

A brief chat, a name, a furtive picture, some online digging, and disappointment. Rinse and repeat.

The woman ducked her head down and started walking down the street, away from Skye.

Skye followed at a safe distance, watching as the woman turned into an alley. Skye waited a moment and then turned as well. She stepped behind a group of teenagers who were chatting and playing with their phones, and then reemerged to see her target rush around the corner again, picking up speed.

Skye followed. They were nearing Ruthie’s now. She saw the woman stop at the pay phone by the diner and rummage in her pockets. For the first time, Skye managed to get a good look at the woman’s face.

Her stomach dropped.

There was more than a resemblance. They were identical.

The other woman was wearing less makeup, sure, and her face bore marks that Skye’s lacked, but the differences were slight. The other woman looked thinner, too, and even through the jeans, Skye noted a muscular definition in the other woman’s legs that she rather envied. She used the gym more for showers than actual workouts.

Other than the small differences, though, this woman could be her sister. Her _twin._

_Sister._ Could it be? 

Skye’s heart pounded. 

She stood frozen in place, barely daring to believe it. But there was no other explanation.

Gathering all of her courage, excitement mounting, she marched up to the pay phone.

“Hey!”

And as if Los Angeles itself were celebrating with her, the ground shook.


	2. Chapter 2

Daisy blinked into her eyes, into Skye’s eyes. 

_What the literal hell?_ Her head spun from left to right, taking in the street. 

It was exactly the same as when she used to live in the van in the alley.

Her gaze settled on the newspaper rack next to the pay phone. 

_July 30, 2013._

_Well, shit._ The object hadn’t just transported her in space. It had transported her in time, exactly five years in the past. Not only had she been ripped from her time––again––but it had put her smack-dab in the middle of what she could only imagine was the biggest time-travel offense of all.

She was messing with her own timeline.

Her eyes met Skye’s again.

“You need a minute?” her 24––no, 25––year-old self asked. Daisy blinked. “To be honest, I figured you were the one looking for me, but judging from your face, you’re just as shocked as I was ten minutes ago.” Skye grinned. “Take all the time you need.”

“Um, ye- yeah,” Daisy sputtered.

“Wanna get a coffee?” Skye asked, gesturing at the diner besides them.

Daisy shook her head. “Sorry, I- I got to go.” 

She dropped the phone with a clang and rushed away.

Her feet carried her to the closest alley. Daisy pressed her back to the grimy brick wall and tried to steady her breath.

Her eyes settled on a faded blue van—her van––parked right next to that old, graffitied dumpster. It didn’t look a day older than when she’d left it.

She sucked in another breath. Of course it didn’t. 

She blinked rapidly. Tears had sprung up in her eyes. The last time she had set eyes on this alley, she’d been staring into Coulson’s face for the first time. Now she’d never see him again. Her fingers brushed her pocket instinctively. Her phone was still missing, back in the future.

“Hey?” her own voice came from behind her, sounding smaller than usual. “You there? I’m sorry.” 

Skye emerged from around the corner but lingered several feet from Daisy. She leaned against the brick. 

“Don’t leave. Please.”

Daisy looked up at Skye. The younger woman fiddled with the hem of her bright-yellow blouse, then continued. “Look, sorry I came on so strong. It’s just… you see it, right?”

Daisy continued to stare. A trip to the future was one thing, but this—on top of everything else? It was a lot to take in.

Skye blinked at her, her eyes widening. “Just look at us, me. Don’t you see it? Look, I don’t know my parents. I was abandoned as a baby, and I don’t know your past but we’ve gotta be to be sisters! Twins, even.” 

“I can’t… I’ve got to go.” Daisy shook her head and tried to leave the alley, but Skye grabbed her hand.

“Please, if there’s any chance you’re my family, I can’t lose you,” she begged. “Let’s get a coffee and talk.” She gestured at Ruthie’s.

Daisy shook her head and watched as Skye’s shoulders fell. 

Daisy sighed. What’s another few minutes? She’d do more damage by leaving, anyway. “OK, fine. But not in the diner.”

“Well,” Skye responded, perking up, “I swear I’m not a psychopath trying to kidnap you or whatever, but I kinda live in that van over there. So, you’re welcome to come hang in my very, very humble abode.” Skye extended her hand dramatically towards the van. 

Daisy nodded and followed Skye to the van.

Skye opened the door and traipsed inside first, lighting the lamp by the computer. Daisy climbed inside.

Those few steps into the van transported her back into the past more completely than the alien artifact ever could.

The sickly sweet smell of gardenia immediately enveloped her. She cleared her throat, trying to not make her disgust too obvious. The smell came from a perfume Miles had given her, she remembered. 

Only after his betrayal had she started hating the stuff.

Her eyes roved throughout the van. The curtains and blankets she had hung from the side of the van blocked most of the bright sunlight. Instead, the fluorescent light from the desk lamp filled the van with a harsher light. 

She gave a half-smile at the sink overflowing with dishes as she settled on the crumpled bed. Her eyes lingered on a pile of crumpled paper on the floor below the roll of toilet paper hanging from the roof above the tiny ledge that served as her desk.

Skye noticed and tried to surreptitiously kick them beneath the curtain covering her desk. “Sorry,” Skye muttered with a nervous laugh. “Wasn’t expecting guests, or, you know, would’ve called the maid.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Daisy chuckled. “You should see my place.” 

Daisy remembered those tissues, though, products of a few particularly dark nights spent crying when she found herself alone and couldn’t control her tears. She hadn’t had many nights like that back when she lived in her van, but she remembered that they had grown more frequent in the month leading up to meeting SHIELD as Miles grew more and more distant.

Daisy glanced at the boxes stored on the shelf at the base of the van’s high top that contained what had been, at the time, all of her earthly possessions. 

Her eyes lingered on the papers that lined the walls, assorted articles about people with powers, maps that attempted to pinpoint the location of SHIELD headquarters, notes about her discoveries regarding Centipede. 

Daisy’s gaze met Skye’s expectant look, and Daisy realized she’d been silent for far too long. “Wow,” she remarked.

Skye glanced at her papers. “I really hope SHIELD hasn’t got their hands on some super sci-fi face-altering tech, and you’re here spying on me, ‘cause if that’s the case, man, am I screwed.” 

Daisy snorted. 

“So you’re not a SHIELD spy then? Good. Now that’s out of the way, I never even asked you your name.”

Daisy swallowed and considered. Finally, she decided on the truth. “Daisy.”

Skye beamed back. “I’m Skye. Nice to meet you, sis.”

* * *

_Oh no, she thinks I’m a total creep,_ Skye fretted as she watched Daisy survey the interior of her van. 

Skye sat down at her desk and leaned forward, pushing through the awkwardness. Her exhilaration rushed back.

“I just can’t believe this! I had no idea I had a sister. I mean, I would’ve thought that I’d at least have seen something about another baby when I was looking. I’m fantastic at computers. I didn’t see anything about another baby being dropped at St. Agnes when I was or being adopted from there at the same time. Wait. Were you even at St. Agnes?”

Her sister… sister, still so weird… blinked at her, and Skye felt like an idiot. “St. Agnes is the orphanage where I grew up. Where are you from?” 

Daisy didn’t answer for a moment, and when she did, she spoke slowly. “Here and there. Mostly, uh, Chicago.”

Skye nodded. “Yeah, I had to move around a lot, too. Like I said, I don’t know anything about my— our parents. You don’t either?” When Daisy didn’t respond, she pressed on. “But I didn’t know there were two of us until today. Hopefully with this new information I can really make some great progress! And… I shouldn’t tell you this, hell, here it goes.” She gestured at the papers. “I think SHIELD has something to do with it. I’m this close to figuring it ou––what’s wrong?”

To her dismay, she watched as the woman began to silently cry.

* * *

As Daisy sat watching Skye chatter on and on, her body felt heavier, tired. 

Her younger self’s hands moved excitedly as she talked. 

Skye had rosy cheeks and masterfully applied eyeshadow. Her lips shimmered with gloss. Daisy remembered those days. She remembered carefully fixing her makeup before leaving her van so that nobody would think she was homeless.

She was so different back then. Her hand drifted to the base of her skull, and she fiddled with the scar on her neck. The smell of perfume and the fluorescent light combined with the vibrations from the surrounding city, overwhelming her—but the onslaught of her activated senses was nothing compared to seeing Skye. 

Seeing herself.

She could barely stand to look at Skye, who had never felt her mother’s hands draining the life from her body, who had never seen her father murder her mother. 

Skye had never watched a man she cared about crumble and die before her. She’d never heard the voice of the love of her life flicker and die, or crushed her best friend’s ribcage, or felt her mind being overtaken by the will of another. 

She’d had never been tortured by those who loved her, or publicly vilified, or sold into slavery, or been tied down and cut into by a friend, or unearthed the bones of her mother. 

Skye hadn’t spent the last few weeks checking every other minute for a text that said the man she considered her father had died.

Had she lived through so much, just to end up back where she started, curled on a bed cramped into a ratty van, accompanied by nobody but herself?

“…I think SHIELD has something to do with it. I’m this close to figuring it ou––what’s wrong?”

Daisy blinked and, to her dismay, broke into tears.

* * *

Skye gaped at the woman sitting across the table from her, alarmed. She’d had a sister for all of five minutes, and she’d already managed to make her cry.

She stood up and walked across the van. She sat down next to Daisy and placed her hands over her sister’s.

“I’m here,” she whispered. “What’s wrong?”

The other woman gasped. “Th- this is completely ridiculous.” 

Skye gave a small smile. “Story of my life.”

This managed to staunch Daisy’s tears for a moment. “Oh,” Daisy choked with the ghost of a chuckle, “you have no idea.”

Skye studied Daisy for a moment. She had a million questions and a half a million theories, but those could wait, for a moment.

After a second, Skye began to speak again, more cautiously this time. “You know, I’ve never had a family. But if there’s one thing I know about what family is supposed to be, it’s that they’re the people who are there for you, no matter what. And look, I don’t even know you, but it’s clear that you’re my family. So you’ve got me, OK?”

Daisy peered up at her through eyes that spoke of sorrow. “I didn- don’t know my family… either.” She started, speaking slowly. “But there was one person, who always… he was like a father to me… is like a father to me. And now I’ll never see him again.” 

Skye squeezed Daisy’s hand and the two sat in silence for a moment. “I’m so sorry, Daisy.” Skye paused, then asked, her voice small, “What’s it like? Having a dad?”

“He believed in me before I believed in myself. He… he found me when I was all alone and gave me a family. He trusted me, even when I didn’t deserve it.” Daisy’s eyes fell. “He made the stupidest jokes and even stupider choices.” She looked away.

Skye felt like a fist had closed over her heart. “He sounds wonderful. I know what it’s like, you know? Not the dad bit, but being alone.”

Another odd half-smile from Daisy. “Yeah. You do.”

Skye hesitated. “Why don’t you go see him?” She glanced at her computer. “I could get you a bus ticket, or a plane ticket to wherever. It wouldn’t be entirely legal, but I could make it work.”

She didn’t want Daisy to leave. She still had so many questions and didn’t want to wait to ask them, but if she had what Daisy was describing, she would do anything to see him.

Daisy shook her head. “I can’t. He’s off on a deathbed honeymoon with the love of his life, and I… I can’t go home.”

Skye studied her sister. She didn’t ask why Daisy couldn’t go home. She knew from hard experience that there could be all too many answers to that question.

“Well, you have a home with me.” She glanced around at the van. “Might need a bigger van, though.”

* * *

Daisy leaned back against the pillow, not responding to Skye.

Was she stuck here now?

Skye tentatively rubbed her knee and then shifted back to her computer, leaving Daisy with a modicum of privacy.

And if she was stuck here, in the past, what would she do?

She couldn’t stay with Skye, not knowing what she knew, not being who she was.

Could she do it all again, this time in tandem with Skye?

Join SHIELD? Her heart leapt at the chance to see Coulson again, but she quickly pushed that hope down. It would never work.

Besides, she wouldn’t last two minutes without quaking Ward’s ass senseless, and permanently disfiguring a member of his team with secret superpowers would probably not endear her to Coulson.

No, she’d have to leave and try to find her own way in 2013. Daisy sighed, wiping away the remnants of tears on her cheeks. Alone, once again.

It was fitting.

She glanced at Skye. If she was going to leave, she better do it soon. She stood up abruptly, almost hitting her head on the roof of the van.

“Look, sorry, I gotta go.” Daisy grasped at the door of the van, pushing it open. 

“Wait, stop!” 

Daisy jumped out of the van, ignoring Skye’s cry.

“Why?”

Daisy didn’t turn around. 

“Fine, go! But I’ll never stop looking for you,” Skye choked. 

Skye’s words stopped Daisy in her tracks. She glanced back at Skye. Her younger self’s eyes were brimming with tears but resolute.

Daisy knew Skye was right. She would never stop looking. Daisy knew the torture of searching years on end for someone she may never find. 

Could she really do that to Skye?

“OK…” she started. “Um, I lied to you.” Daisy hesitated. “Or, I guess, I didn’t tell the whole truth.”

Skye raised an eyebrow, blinking back tears. “Yeah?”

“I’m not your sister. I know this is going to sound all kinds of crazy, but I’m you. I’m from the future.” 

Skye sucked in a breath. “From… from the future? You’re saying that you’re me? Do you know how crazy you sound right now?”

“I know it sounds insane, but it’s the truth. I didn’t want to tell you because I don’t know what havoc it’ll wreak for you to know, but I can’t let you believe you’ve lost your sister. I couldn’t live like that.”

Skye huffed in disbelief. “You know what, just leave! You’re a waste of a sister anyway.” 

“You still don’t believe me?” Daisy asked softly.

“That you are me, from the future? Yeah, forgive me if I’m a little less gullible than that, sis.”

“Here, look.” Daisy climbed back into the van, pushing aside Skye whose arms were crossed angrily in front of her chest. She thought for a second and typed in the last password she remembered for her van’s computer system, and sure enough, she was in.

Skye shook her head. “I’m a hacker, remember? My passwords are good, but nothing is unsolvable. You gotta do better than that.”

Daisy stilled for a moment. Then, she pulled back the edge of her jacket and tentatively lifted the hem of her shirt. 

She saw Skye’s eyes fix on the three fading, circular scars seared onto the skin above her hip.

“The Millers. I was eleven.” Daisy pulled down her shirt collar, revealing a slight, jagged line. “This one would’ve only been… about a year ago for you, I think. That drunk idiot, Jeff.”

“Oh my God,” Skye whispered. She walked up to Daisy and placed her hand on Daisy’s hip, moving Daisy’s shirt aside to trace the edges of the scars. “How…?” Her eyes roved over Daisy’s midsection, tracing the newer scars that she didn’t yet have.

Daisy quickly tugged down her shirt. 

Skye gaped at her, then coughed. “Damn, I’m gonna get some abs.”

“Glad that’s what you’re taking away from this situation.” 

Skye shook her head, astounded. “I mean, whoa. How is this even possible? Wait… are you here to tell me something? Are you a time traveler? Do I, like, get superpowers or something?”

Daisy snorted. “I wasn’t looking for you—me—at all. I just touched this random object and bam, I’m here.” 

“It’s got to mean something though, right? I mean, people don’t just get shot back in time all the time… or do they? In the future where you’re from, I mean?”

Shaking her head, Daisy replied, “no, this would be a first.” To the future, on the other hand…

“Well, tell me about yourself. About me, about the future! Do I find my parents? What’s going on with Centipede? Do I figure out all of SHIELD’s deep, dark secrets? Do I marry Captain America? …You know, the important stuff.”

“Yeah, that’s going to be a hard no on the last one.”

“Well, there go my dreams.”

“But you know I can’t tell you the rest of it. I’m pretty sure the way time travel works, my turning up here makes your timeline different than mine. So even if I told you what happened to me, it may not happen to you.”

Skye narrowed her eyes. “Sounds like you know a thing or two about time travel.”

Daisy shrugged. “I mean, if your future is my past, then wouldn’t me telling you about this make me vanish? You’re sure as hell going to be more careful about touching random stuff, for one thing.”

“I guess that’s true,” Skye conceded. “So, are you going back?”

“I don’t think I can,” Daisy sighed. “But I can’t stay here.”

That much was clear to her. Whatever weird twist of fate had arranged for her to go flying backwards on her timeline, she couldn’t relive those five years. All the pain, all the deaths.

A jolt ran through her as she had a realization.

She could save Skye from that fate as well, and maybe, through removing herself, save everyone else.

She glanced up at Skye, feeling a surge of desperate hope––and caught the haze of sadness that had fallen over Skye’s visage again.

“Should’ve known I’d never be so lucky, anyway,” Skye scoffed, her voice thick. “To think I had a sister, and she’d just walk right up to me.” Skye curled her arms around her chest and huddled on the bed, staring down into her arms. 

How many times had she sat like that? Daisy surveyed the van and the surrounding alley through the still open door. She remembered the lonely nights when she’d distract herself with her conspiracy theories and her mad searches in hacked databases for a morsel of information about her parents. 

She remembered nights in that same van, crying alone, because Miles, the only person in the world who pretended to care for her, had gone awol, once again.

She remembered accepting him back because she couldn’t stand to be utterly and entirely alone.

“Just leave,” Skye muttered, hitting the side of the van with her fist.

Daisy sucked in a breath. With just a phrase, just a few sentences of carefully chosen facts, she could send Skye on a totally different path. She could make it so Skye never encountered SHIELD.

She could make it so Skye never had to mourn Coulson.

Should she?

Would that be what she would’ve wanted, even now, when the pain of losing him was too great to bear? To never know him would be to never mourn him—and to never know the feeling of being unconditionally loved.

In an instant, Daisy realized that she couldn’t do it. No matter all the craziness, all the suffering that she knew Skye—that she—would endure, she couldn’t deprive her of the most beautiful thing life had given her.

A family. A father. 

“Can I leave tomorrow?” she murmured. Skye looked up, anger still blazing through her eyes with her pain. Slowly, though, she nodded.

Daisy closed the door of the van and moved over onto the bed, next to Skye. She curled up and lay down. A moment later, Skye joined her. 

“Can you at least tell me where the other scars came from?” Skye whispered.

Daisy shook her head. “Sorry. Maybe it’ll be different for you, and you won’t get them at all.”

As she lay there, staring at the same roof she had looked at so many times, Daisy found her eyes somehow growing heavy. A moment before drifting to sleep, she whispered, “hey, Skye?”

“Yeah?”

“Just… keep going, OK. Promise me? Keep going.”

Skye took a moment before answering. Finally, she replied, her voice barely audible. “I promise.”

With that, Daisy drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The right side of Daisy’s face felt cold, and she awoke with a jolt.

“Skye?” She blinked her eyes blearily. As her vision adjusted, rather than the darkness of the van she saw the harsh fluorescent lights of the Lighthouse storage room.

She leapt to her feet. 

Turning from left to right, she confirmed that everything was the same as before—the same box gaping open on the table, the same shelves…

The same phone.

She almost tripped over herself as she dove at the phone to check her messages.

One New Message.  
Melinda May.

She opened it, trembling.

It contained only two words.

_He’s gone._

She stumbled backwards, dropping the phone. She gasped, letting the room shake, not even caring about controlling the effect of her emotion. 

The door crashed open and Jemma ran in.

“Daisy, we’ve been looking for you for hours! Where have you been? I thought we checked here… Daisy? Are you OK?”

Her eyes settled on the phone on the floor, and she put two and two together.

Her own eyes welling up with tears, Jemma crossed the room and wrapped her arms around Daisy’s trembling form. 

The room continued to shake as the two embraced. “I’m just glad I knew him,” Daisy murmured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I liked this more in concept than in execution, but I'd love to hear your thoughts!


End file.
